Larry Craig May Not Resign

The Politico and just about everyone else reports that Larry Craig may not resign

The reversal angers GOP colleagues who have urged him to quit and stop embarrassing the party, squashing their fading chances to prevent a strong Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate in 2008.

I say: Be proud, Larry, stay and fight! Just stay away bathrooms; real men hit the bars, dood (that's what my gay friends tell me).

Please contact Larry and tell him stay.

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Hypocrite Bathroom Seducer Sen. Larry Craig Also Likes to Shaft Veterans

Sen. Larry Craig is not your ordinary gay Republican looking for love in the toilet.

As the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs in 2005, Craig also helped engineer a secret end-run assisting the administration's efforts to shaft veterans who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after their service.

“So the brave men and women who have served in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq are honest enough to put themselves in danger in the defense of the United States, yet their sworn personal hearing testimony concerning the stressors they experienced in Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq" is not sufficient to take on its face, editorializes the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

But the American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) Dr. Sally Satel’s ethos that ridicules veterans diagnosed with PTSD who seek disability benefits has permeated the Dept of Veterans Affairs, and Satel and the VA found a willing partner in Sen. Larry Craig. [The Post: "Psychiatrist Sally Satel, who is affiliated with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said an underground network advises veterans where to go for the best chance of being declared disabled. The institute organized a recent meeting to discuss PTSD among veterans."]

In August 2005, the VA announced plans to review 72,000 PTSD cases with a 100 percent disability rating. But a torrent of criticism by veterans’ groups and Democrats forced the administration to back down.

On August 10, 2005 Sen. Barrack Obama (D-IL) blasted the administration in a letter to VA Secretary Nicholson.

“In order to truly create fairness in the claims system, the VA should concentrate its efforts on reviewing denials of PTSD claims,” said Obama. “ ... The process of gathering evidence to prove PTSD disability is extremely time-consuming. It requires the compilation of medical records, military service records, and testimonies from other veterans who can attest to a person’s combat exposure. I cannot fathom why the VA would require veterans to go through this emotionally painful process a second time.”

The politics of the VA going after 72,000 veterans became too hot to handle. On Nov. 10, 2005, the VA announced that there would “no across-the-board review of PTSD cases.”

Just days later, Cheryl Reed of the Chicago Sun Times, broke a story detailing how the VA planned to implement a PTSD restructuring anyway, despite its announcement six days earlier.

The new PTSD-examination plan was released in a low, low-profile manner in a press release through Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), then Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

No VA press conference, just a quiet, low-key way to furtively implement the AEI’s views on PTSD, while denying that this is what is happening.

If Craig wants to have sex with men, I'll fight for his right to do so. He has nothing to be ashamed of [though Larry should try bars, not bathrooms].

But Craig's real sin about which he should have been driven from office is screwing over our veterans who serve our country.

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Larry Craig's Press Conference at 11:30 Central Time

Craig's news conference will be telecast live this morning. [That's Craig at right receiving a legislative achievement award from the NRA.]

I'll have to check that press conference out; the Badgers aren't on till 2:30 (real men watch football and drink beer; maybe I'll have to send Jackie out if she talks too much during the game (BTW, Happy Birthday, Jackie, I love you!) :) .

But at the risk of piling on, I have to post a couple of links to the faux Dragnet segment-spoof from Keith Olberman, and to Craig's commenting on Bill Clinton's blow job (warning, Craig is really freaky here).

The Republican party lives by hatred of gays, so one gets some pleasure in watching the political death by hate of one its main purveyors.

As for Larry Craig:

Hey Dood, it's okay, there's nothing wrong with being gay; and you have a very nice pension waiting for you. Hell, most kids now-a-days don't even blink an eye at being gay (I was twice as bigoted in my adolescence as the typical kid today, and I'm a peace-loving civil libertarian).

Retire now Larry to your hopes, dreams and desires and live in peace.

Now, if we can just stop God from making you suffer in ever-lasting torment. I'll see what I can do about that, man.

Update: You can always repent.

Also, I took the liberty of getting a couple of book titles from Focus on the Family:

- Restoring Sexual Identity (Paperback)
- Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth (Paperback)

Finally, FYI, the Rapture Index is at 161 (scale is 100 to 160). That's at a Fasten-Your-Seatbelts score. So, you best get busy being saved, or get busy getting left behind.

If we're both here left behind, I'll buy ya a cold one if you make it over to Wisconsin (there will be a lot of us left behind here: Jews, agnostics, leftists, lesbians, Pagans, you name the heretic, and we got em).

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Republican Family Values

Savior Of The Men's Room

As Joe Conason suggests, just maybe Tucker Carlson's boasting "that he and another adolescent thug beat up a gay man who 'bothered' him in a bathroom years ago" was a bit over the top.

Dennis Perrin has some fun with effeminate Republicans who pretend that they are macho men, and not like that Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), or Marvin Liebman, or Arthur Finkelstein, or evangelical preacher Ted Haggard, former Congressman Ed Schrock, or former Congressman Mark Foley (you get the point).

Savior Of The Men's Room from Dennis Perrin

Somewhere, in the bowels of MSNBC, Tucker Carlson explains his interviewing technique to a pair of female interns.

CARLSON: So then I said, Senator Clinton, if I want to know about the women's vote, I'll ask one.

INTERN 1: (chuckles) I get it. 'Cause Hillary's ugly and looks like a man.

INTERN 2: Yeah, and she talks like a man, too, like most lesbians.

INTERN 1: Gosh, Mr. Carlson, it's no wonder why you're one of the hotter cable news personalities!

CARLSON: Now, girls, take it easy. Remember, I'm married.

INTERN 2: Yeah -- married to funny!

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

INTERN 1: What's that?

CARLSON: Err, umm, it's a special MSNBC inner-office cell. Probably Scarborough, looking for an opening to his show.

INTERN 1: You help him and do your own show? Wow! You're really amazing!

CARLSON: Yeah. Uh, excuse me, ladies.

Carlson finds an empty office, closes the door, and takes the call.

CARLSON: Yes commissioner?

POLICE COMMISSIONER: Straight Man! Thank God I found you. We have an emergency situation at a men's room next to the Bissell Park soccer field. Looks like Leather Chap's back in town.

CARLSON: Up to his old tricks, eh? Well, it's time to flush that fruit once and for all.

PC: Are you familiar with that men's room?

CARLSON: Yes. It's the same place where cable news celebrity Tucker Carlson takes his son.

PC: Good Lord!

CARLSON: No need to panic, commissioner. I'll handle it. Better send along a SWAT team for support, just in case it gets messy.

PC: Anything you want, Straight Man!

CARLSON: Good. I'm off!

Within seconds, Tucker Carlson sheds his news persona and changes into the one and only, Straight Man! When he arrives at the park's public men's room, he sees two boys sobbing outside.

STRAIGHT MAN: Say there, fellas! Why the waterworks?

BOY 1: There's a weird guy in there, Straight Man! He looked at me funny.

BOY 2: He offered us mints!

SM: Mints?! In a men's room?! Stand back, boys -- I got this covered.

Straight Man enters the bathroom and immediately spots Leather Chap, a devious homosexual who wears nothing but black leather and sports a thick, handlebar moustache.

LEATHER CHAP: Be still, my fragile heart! Are you my caped crusader?

SM: The only crusade you'll see is a crusade of hetero-justice!

LC: Always the drama queen, Straight Boy. Why don't you relax, come over here, and let me "bother" you for awhile.

SM: I have a better idea. How about I smash your head into the wall!

Straight Man grabs Leather Chap by the neck and repeatedly drives his head into the tile wall until the queer menace falls to his knees, semi-conscious. Suddenly, three SWAT officers burst through the men's room door, weapons trained on Leather Chap.

SM: You're just in time, men! I've done the hard scrubbing, so why don't you mop this mess up!

OFFICER 1: It'll be a pleasure, Straight Man. All right, pervo -- let's go.

LC: (angrily coming to) I'll swing you yet, Straight Man! You hear me! Swing! Swing!

SM: Sell it in the prison shower, Chappie.

Straight Man emerges from the men's room, triumphant.

BOY 2: Thanks, Straight Man! You made it safe to poop again!

SM: Just doing my job, son. But remember: there's nothing wrong with homosexuality, just so long as it's practiced behind a locked door in a sound-proof, windowless room.

BOYS: (in unison) Yaaay!

What further challenges face our hero -- The Uriniator? Seat Cover Slim? Porcelain Bus Driver? Whatever the men's room threat, Straight Man will be there to keep the innocent from being bothered. And now, this . . .
posted by Dennis Perrin at 8:27 AM

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Some Piling on Sen. Larry Craig

This video is pretty funny; the Brits have a certain manner about them.

Was posted before the no-wonder-we're-going-down-the-tubes
Craig's adventure, but works well today.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72ZO6w0rl6Y

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Closeted Gay Republican Sen. Larry Craig's Video Supporting Mitt Romney for President

I have met several gay Republicans. I never really asked, but how can they associate with a party that has as a primary campaign tactic a naked appeal to bigotry. [Evangelical gay basher pictured above-right with President Bush.]

Really, what is wrong with these people? There is nothing wrong with being gay, you idiots. There is something wrong with appealing to bigotry and supporting hate against gays; and it's weird doing while being gay.

Here's the link featuring the outed and now criminally outed Sen Larry Craig (R-ID) speaking of coded, gay-bashing family values. The video was removed by the Romney campaign but Talking Points Memo has a link.

Update: Via ThinkProgress:

In an editorial, The Idaho Statesman writes that “Sen. Craig owes Idahoans an explanation.” “This is a painful time made worse by the fact that Craig so far has been less than forthcoming. … [V]oters now deserve the full story from their senior senator.” The paper has a longer profile of Craig here.
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